Kukla's Korner Hockey

Category: Edmonton-Oilers

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins may or may not know it. But with Ottawa Senators general manager Pierre Dorion taking in his second consecutive Edmonton Oilers game, he is auditioning.

For the Oilers first, and the Senators second....

Having Nugent-Hopkins makes for three centremen in the Top 6, which pleases the coach. Having that trio — plus the $6-million Milan Lucic — gives you four forwards earning $33 million beginning next season. That’s plenty.

And that’s what has Nugent-Hopkins auditioning for the Senators as well. Because, by the time this run on McDavid’s wing ends, if the coach and GM decide that Nugent-Hopkins is not the prototypical winger for this prodigal centreman, then they might decide that Mike Hoffman is.

Hoffman makes $5.2 million for the next two seasons. He’s roughly a 25-goal man who, we would guess, could do much better than that in a season spent on McDavid’s flank. Chiarelli has already mused about the problem of having $27 million wrapped up in three centremen.

It's been a tough season in Edmonton, going from 103 points and two rounds in the playoffs last season to having little chance to qualify this season. You said recently that expectations for the Oilers ran really high after last season and that you had a difficult time getting that under control. How did that affect the organization and the team?

"Expectations certainly were extremely high and rightly so. This organization hadn't been in the playoffs for many, many years and we got into the playoffs and played very well, one goal, one game away from going to the conference final. So that expectation came and it came not just from within the city of Edmonton, it came worldwide about where the Edmonton Oilers were. We talked a lot about it but it's very difficult to get your hands around that and maneuver that expectation when it's coming at you in so many ways. We absorbed that and you've got to talk to the players about how it really affected them. Here, we're worried about it and there wasn't any way to get right in front of that and control all of that. It (began) in Vegas (at the NHL Awards and NHL Expansion Draft last June) about where this team was supposed to be."

It’s not because of something nefarious. But in the minds of potential voters, his season is tainted. Call it guilt by association.

McDavid is ranked third in the Art Ross Trophy race with 84 points in 68 games. Since the All-Star break, he is tied for first in goals (18) and second in points (30). He’s having as good an offensive year as he did in 2017-18 when he finished with 100 points and won the Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award.

The problem is that while McDavid is having another MVP season, his team is having a forgettable one.

The Edmonton Oilers are not a playoff team. As of Monday, they weren’t even close. For this reason — and pretty much this reason alone — McDavid won’t come close to winning an award that by definition is awarded annually to the “player judged most valuable to his team.”

Doug Weight was asked if he had any words left to describe what has befallen his team. He came up empty.

“No, I don’t. I don’t,” the Islanders’ coach said Thursday night. “Nothing. I can’t.”

It was difficult to blame him after the latest flop in a cliff dive out of playoff contention. This time it was a 2-1 shootout loss to the Oilers in a game the Islanders were 110 seconds away from winning in regulation time.

So make that eight games in a row without a victory. The fact that four came in overtime or shootouts illustrates the Islanders often have played well enough to win, only to lose anyway.

“It’s extremely hard to believe,” said Thomas Hickey, who scored the Islanders’ only goal 1:54 into the third period.

Emily Kaplan, national NHL reporter: There's always a caveat when it comes to the state of the Chicago Blackhawks. Yes, you must admit as a disclaimer that they won three Stanley Cups in six years with this core. But, as Chicago has come crashing down to pedestrian status this season, its lack of long-term viability has been exposed.

The biggest quagmire for Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman? The contract of Brent Seabrook. The defenseman carries a hefty cap hit of $6.875 million and is locked in for seven more seasons. ...

Greg Wyshynski, senior writer: The hallmark of any bloated, regrettable contract is how hard a team is going to work to make it disappear. So, with that established: Bobby Ryan has a quagmire of a deal with the Ottawa Senators.

Ryan signed his seven-year, $50.75 million contract extension in October 2014. It was a time when the franchise was defined by high-profile player departures and the stingy ownership of Eugene Melynk, who the Ottawa Sun wrote "has taken countless hits from fans worried about the club's ability to compete with a limited budget." Good to see not much has changed in three-and-a-half years....

Chris Peters: The two contracts listed above by Greg and Emily are definitely tougher to deal with than this one, but the unrestricted free agent deal Milan Lucic signed before last season with the Edmonton Oilers is going to only get more burdensome once Connor McDavid's new contract kicks in next season. Lucic will be tied for the third-largest cap hit on the team next year, assuming the Oilers don't make other deals to help improve a forward group that lacks depth. There are also five more years remaining on Lucic's deal.

That’s how many times this season the Edmonton Oilers have surrendered a goal on the game’s first shot.

A baker’s dozen.

In fully 20 per cent of their games, the very … first … shot … goes … in. That’s one out of every five starts, for you folks scoring at home.

If there is one malady that sums up an Oilers season that has just never been healthy, it is that. And very seldom has it been a bad goal.

Most often, it has been one like the New York Ranges scored just 54 seconds into the game Saturday night: amateurish puck management, beer league defensive zone coverage, and a player depositing a puck into a wide open net, as Chris Kreider did to open Saturday’s 3-2 Rangers victory.

Accepted theory that a team can only come up with a franchise player by bottoming out and cashing in at the draft doesn’t at all hold up if you can get Edmonton GM Peter Chiarelli to trade with you.

Because the Devils sure have their franchise guy in the brilliant and dynamic 26-year-old Taylor Hall, who has surged to the front of the class for Hart Trophy consideration in Year 2 in New Jersey following his acquisition from the Oilers in exchange for Adam Larsson.

Ray Shero has assembled more than a one-man band, obviously, but Hall has been carrying the Devils toward their first playoff berth since 2012 while recording 34 points (17 goals) in 24 straight games since the calendar turned to 2018. Overall, Hall (29 goals, 41 assists, 70 points) has chipped in on 37.4 percent of New Jersey’s goals.

Chiarelli, of course, also traded a 21-year-old Tyler Seguin, so perhaps there is hope Leon Draisaitl will land on Broadway before he turns 23 in late October.

Newark, NJ - The New Jersey Devils today acquired forward Patrick Maroon from the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for the club's third-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft and the rights to forward prospect J.D. Dudek. The announcement was made by New Jersey Devils Executive Vice President/General Manager Ray Shero.

Maroon, 29, has 14 goals and 16 assists for 30 points in 57 games this season. His goal total ranked fourth on the Oilers and his point total ranked fifth. The 6-3, 225lb., St. Louis, MO, native is in his sixth full NHL season having played with Anaheim and Edmonton. Last season, he tallied career highs in points (42), and goals (27, third on the team). In 358 career NHL games played, he has scored 70 goals, 90 assists for 165 points and 438 penalty minutes. He was traded by Anaheim to Edmonton on Feb. 29, 2016, for Martin Gernat and a fourth-round pick in the 2016 NHL Draft (Jack Kopacka).

The Ducks are the first NHL team in nearly 14 years to force overtime in a game where they trailed by two goals with 21 seconds (or less) remaining in regulation. The last team to do so was San Jose, which trailed 3-1 vs. Los Angeles with 20 seconds remaining on Apr. 4, 2004 (won 4-3 in overtime). Remarkably, one player also scored both goals in the final moments in that game (Brad Stuart at 19:40 and 19:57). Rickard Rakell’s two goals tonight came at 19:39 and 19:53 to force overtime, which also completed his first career hat trick.

Rakell and Stuart are the ONLY two players to score both goals in such a situation since the 1967-68 NHL season.